So far, Harlow's #watermelondress was on both Inside Edition and Kelly and Ryan Live. Mazzy was like, "Wait! What about MY watermelon dress???" She's right. The pink fringe cap sleeve is an excellent addition. Still think #babymeloning is the better hashtag!

Everybody is smiling and looking at camera! I just posted my latest travel vlog which follows our three day road trip in Central New York! It rained a lot but we still had tons of fun. Don't miss Harlow dancing like a robot and Mazzy talking "duck." I think this is my favorite travel video so far. YouTube link in bio!

She's getting her hair cut today. I was going to leave work and meet her and our sitter there but I'm too swamped. It's the first time she's getting a cut without me. Fingers crossed they don't chop it all off or give her faux hawk!

If you don't already know, "a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk" has replaced Harlow's waffle obsession. She asks for it every single morning, in those words exactly. If I were to say, "Harlow, do you want a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios?" She would say, "Yes, WITH MILK." Also, ever since Harlow and I made that video about how to make cereal (link in bio- FYI, the longer YouTube version is even better than the one I put on Insta), Harlow has been really into making her own breakfast in the morning. Her and Mazzy have even taken our cereal orders at night and then pre-set the table with our names written on the napkins. Then they instruct us to stay in bed until everything is ready. It's actually some of the few times we've been able to sit down to breakfast all together as a family at the dining room table. Thanks @cheerios for helping make the mornings easier this summer! #generalmillscereal #sponsored

Family Itinerary: 3 Days in Central New York

At the end of June, the kids were both finished with school and camp had yet to start, so I took them for a road trip to Central New York, planned by our local tourism board in partnership with the “I Love New York” campaign.

Mazzy and Harlow are born and bred New York City kids, so when I first told them we were taking a trip upstate, Harlow said, “You mean— uptown?”

Nope. Way farther north than uptown, Harlow! Although, judging by the reactions I got from some upstate New Yorkers on Instagram, they don’t think the areas I went are upstate either. I guess it all depends on where you are from. Anything north of Westchester is upstate to me!

Since Mike had to work, I took Allie along for the trip and we put together a travel vlog of the experience. You can watch it here. I also thought I’d give anyone interested a rundown of our itinerary, along with drive times since a visit to Central New York involves a lot of driving. It’s not like the pizza shop is right next to the ice cream shop which is down the block from the park like it is in Manhattan, you know?

I thought Mazzy and Harlow wouldn’t do well with all the driving, but it turned out that it gave them a good opportunity to nap between activities. Plus, Central New York is pretty scenic with lots to look at along the way. We had barely left Manhattan when Mazzy started asking when we were going to see some cows.

“Probably not on the George Washington Bridge, Mazzy.”

We did have one incident right after the bridge where Harlow threw up all over her carseat and I had to pull over at a gas station and hose everything down, which I think made Allie question all her life choices, but that’s just me keeping it real. After that, it was smooth sailing!

At the farm, we also had the opportunity to feed pigs, ostriches, goats, zebras, bunnies, camels, alpacas and many more animals scattered around the property. They gave Mazzy and Harlow each a bucket of vegetables and feed.

There were picture markers on each enclosure saying what you should feed the animal inside and how. Even Harlow could decipher the signs herself.

If it wasn’t for the torrential downpour, my kids would have been happy staying there much longer. We ended the event by buying giraffes in the gift shop that the girls were inseparable from for the rest of the trip.

Next, we drove 1 1/2 hours to Howe Caverns, which most New Yorkers, including myself, remember visiting as a kid. It’s a huge cave discovered by a guy named Howe who turned it into a tourist attraction. We took a guided tour, which includes an underground boat ride, a short movie about the cave’s discovery, and fun facts about the numerous rock formations jutting out from both the bottom and the top of the cavern.

It’s cold and dark once you take the elevator about 100 feet underground (bring a sweater!) which makes the whole thing fun and mysterious for the kids. Doesn’t make for the best photo ops though.

The best photos I got were of the kids playing in the grass (“The hills are alive…”) and climbing the trees outside when the tour was over.

After Howe Caverns, we checked in at The Gable’s Bed and Breakfast in Cobleskill, where Mazzy and Harlow were thrilled to discover we had the run of an entire house.

The place was huge. Mazzy and Harlow got their own room, relaxed on the wicker couch and marveled at the crystal dishes of hard candies in every room.

That night, we went to a very classy place called Rubbin’ Butts BBQ, a name that Mazzy and Harlow found HILARIOUS. Obviously. Allie and I asked the owner what dishes they were best known for and they brought us out pretty much everything.

The pulled pork sandwich was my favorite. Can you believe I ate this whole thing?

After dinner, the kids danced in the adjacent parking lot and begged me for ice cream. We went to Stewart’s, which was recommended and ate it on the side of the highway while watching one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen.

Day 2: Cider and Sylvan Beach

The next morning, the kids ran downstairs to see if there really were warm homemade muffins waiting for us in the kitchen, like the owner had told us there would be. They were there, like magic! Even the giraffes got some.

After breakfast, we packed up our things and drove 50 minutes to the Fly Creek Cider Mill and Orchard. Fly Creek is known for a few things: their ducks, their cider and their photo ops. You know those wood signs with the faces cut out so you can take funny pictures? They were EVERYWHERE.

We took a tour of the mill…

Fed the ducks…

And ate our weight in cheese, fudge, cider donuts and cider wine cooler smoothies. The only thing Fly Creek had more of than photo ops, was free food samples. If my grandparents were still alive, they would have had a field day there.

Before we left, Mazzy and Harlow had to have a duck race. We played until both kids had each won, fair and square.

Next up was lunch at Jerry’s Place in Cooperstown (about five minutes away), an old school diner with an ice cream shop up front, an arcade in the back, and a swing set outside. Perfect for letting the kids let off some steam before the drive ahead.

The girls slurped down lemonade like it was their job.

From there, we had a half hour drive to Erie Canal Cruises . On our drive, Mazzy continued her search for cows and was excited to spot one grazing close to the road. “Do you want me to pull over so you can go outside and take a picture with it?”

“MOOOOO!!!” She shouted. And then to clarify, “That’s cow for yes.”

We reached the canal at around 3pm, but due to the weather (it was about to rain again), our cruise was canceled.

They let us board the boat for fun and both Mazzy and Harlow got the honor of sitting in the captain’s seat.

The boat may have been docked at the time but the cap makes them official!

The girls both ordered cotton candy ice cream which is definitely a flavor my mother would never have let me order. But I had to make up for the lack of amusement park somehow, right?

With our ice cream cones in hand, we walked across the street to stand on the shore of Oneida Lake and watch the sunset.

They had told us Sylvan Beach has the prettiest sunsets on earth, but I admit— I thought they were exaggerating. Nope! Not only was the sky a rainbow of gorgeous colors, the water in the lake was WARM.

The girls splashed around until their clothes were sopping wet and played in the sand until it was necessary to hose them off before we could go back to our room.

Luckily, we were staying in a bungalow right on the lake called the Sunset Cottages which had a hose outside just for this purpose. After they were clean and dry, we caught the final flecks of sun still visible through our bedroom windows and the sound of the waves rocked us to sleep.

Day 3: Pancakes and Waterfalls

On our final day in Central New York, we woke up, crossed the street and ate at the Pancake House, which was owned by the daughter of the guy who owns the ice cream place. It’s a very small town where everyone seems to know each other.

Then we drove 35 minutes to our final stop, a beautiful state park with an amazing waterfall called Chittenango Falls.

The parking lot is at the top of the falls. You can just do a quick stop and look down or you can hike to the bottom and back, like we did, which takes about an hour in total. The hike includes a beautiful view from a little bridge at the base of the falls, which I highly recommend.

Mazzy proclaimed that hiking is her most favorite activity and had a blast hopping from rock to rock in the stream. Harlow, for her part, made me carry her for the majority of the walk.

After the falls, we had lunch outside in the garden of Lincklaen House and walked around the pretty town of Cazenovia.

Then we hopped in the car and began our four hour drive back to Manhattan. As all successful road trips should, our trip ended with the girls both fast asleep for the majority of the way home.

My favorite part was later that evening when Mazzy told Mike all about our trip. She hadn’t been that excited to go when I first told her what we were doing, and I wasn’t sure the rain, the closed amusement park and the canceled cruise had helped. But I was wrong.

“It was actually REALLY fun, Dad. You would have liked it. I’ll take you back one day.”

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If you’d like to see a video of our road trip, which includes all the funny little things that Mazzy and Harlow did along the way, you can watch it on YouTube!

We’re on vacation! Not only are we starting off with excellent weather, we got a good shot taken by Mike on the very first night! Thanks, Daddy Shorts. 🙌🏻 First full day in paradise is on my story! #mommyshortsinmexico

There’s a new sculpture in Astor Place that broke my heart. It is called The Last Three. It’s 17 feet tall and represents the last three northern white rhinos on earth. Their names are Sudan, Nijan, and Fatu. Sudan is the last male. He is 45, which is the life expectancy for a rhino. His daughter is Nijan and his granddaughter is Fatu. Rhino horns are worth a ton of money so they are in constant threat of poachers. This public piece of art was created by artists Gillie and Marc with the hope of educating and inspiring others to care about the plight of the rhinos. It worked on me. Their aim is to collect 1 million goodbye messages on www.goodbyerhinos.org and put them towards a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns. Please like, comment and tag your friends to get this seen by as many people as possible and feel free to regram and share! 😥 #goodbyerhinos

New York is still freezing so instead of doing our usual ski trip in March, we decided to switch things up and go somewhere much warmer. Not sure when I’ll post on my feed, but you can follow along on my Instagram stories...🌴☀️🥝👙🦎⛱⛵️✈️🍹🤸‍♂️😎 #comingsoon

Sometimes I look at my Instagram account and think— man, this feed really needs some adults. Who is running this thing??? And because I know everyone is going to ask where @littlemissparty got her dress, I already asked. It’s vintage. She bought it when she was 19. Sucks for the rest of us! I got my shirt at Aritzia. Thanks for asking 🤣 Have you guys watched our Instagram lives together? I like doing it so much better with a friend! We are on a two week break because our schedules are all crazy but will do it again after that. What would you guys want us to talk about? Any questions for two NYC working moms???

Harlow has a very important message for everyone. Brought to you by Super Why, I think. Also, this impromptu performance was 100% because Harlow noticed me upping my intake of fruits and vegetables this week. 🍎🍌🥕💪🏻 #harlowunplugged #eathealthy